Based in Hong Kong, young Chinese artist Koon Wai Bong has rapidly risen to prominence as one of the leading contemporary artists in Hong Kong. Koon received his B.A. and M.F.A. from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and his D.F.A. from the RMIT University and is currently the Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University.
Koon Wai Bong works with ink media under the concept of
'reworking the classics'. His 'reworking' is considered a means to
deviate from the parochial view that emphasises pedantic knowledge
and the techniques used in old masterpieces, yet casts a
transformation of traditional aesthetics in a new, contemporary
light. His oeuvre is mostly in the form of painting, some of which
are polyptychs, while others coalesce into sound art and
Chinese-styled apparel
like qipao or changshan. Executed
with precise brushwork, Koon’s landscapes often lend themselves to
a visual ambience that excludes a vision of reconciliation between
the tranquility of nature and the self-possession of the
artist.
Recently Koon held solo exhibitions entitled Picturing
Mountains and Streams and Now and
Then at the Grotto Fine Art in 2011 and 2013
respectively, and TRANSpose at The Museum of
East Asian Art, UK in 2013. He was awarded the ‘Rising Artist
Award’ in 2003, the ‘Merit’ of the National Exhibition of Arts,
China in 2004, and the ‘Hong Kong Contemporary Art Biennial Award’
in 2009. By invitation, he joined the International Ink Painting
Biennial of Shenzhen in 2010, the Taipei International Modern Ink
Painting Biennial in 2012, the New Ink and The Spirit of Ink at
Sotheby’s Gallery, and has exhibited at Art Basel Hong Kong and Art
Taipei in 2013, and other exhibitions and art fairs in Hong Kong,
Mainland China, Taiwan, Germany, Miami, New York and
Singapore. Koon’s artwork has been collected by galleries,
museums, art organisations and private collections including the
Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Wharf Group in Hong Kong, the J. Safra
Sarasin Group in Singapore and the Asian Art Museum in San
Francisco.
For additional information about this artist, visit Mutual Art
